Those with girls who have hit puberty...

How have you handled the whole tampon thing with your DD? I feel like what I did just isn't the norm, but I wasn't sure what else to do.

DD is 13 and just got her 1st AF in Feb. Well she starts swimming in gym this week and she just started her 3rd AF the other day. Well I told her she could try a tampon to see if that works. I took one out and explained how to use it the best I could, and showed her the instruction sheet too. I told her to try as many as she needed to until it and she was comfortable. If it didn't work, that was fine too!!

We will see how things go tomorrow. I am going to tell her to talk to the nurse if she doesn't think she can do the tampon thing tomorrow and hope they will give her an excuse. I hope I handled it OK. Be honest!!!

It took my DD a few AF's to get it right. I bought her a box, gave her some ideas, like put one foot up. Told her what worked for me.
She took the box, used most of the first box & even googled it for more ideas.
It was frustrating for her at first, but she got it. She said the playtex "sport" was the easiest, if that helps.
Good luck

I second the Playtex Sport, those are the ones my DD prefers. I typically buy Tampax and those just didn't work for her, she did much better with the Playtex.
I had bought her a book from America Girl years ago called
"The Care and Keeping of You." It addresses tampons and other things in it, and then we also talked about it. She used Pads at first until she became accustomed to having periods and understood her flow a little better, but then when swimming season came around, we also made the move to tampons.
It sounds to me like what you did was fine, I mean there's really not a lot more you can do other than let them experiment with them. I did warn my DD that it may make her a little sick to her stomach at first and helped remind her to change it after a few hours until she got accustomed to them.

I think you did a good job. I'll second the American Girl book. We have it as well. My dd is only 10 and no AF yet, but the book's instructions were way more helpful than the ones that come with tampons. lol Also, make sure she isn't changing it too often (should be left in at least 4 hours if I remember correctly).

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Lisa

Rachel 12/97 Eric 10/99,Thomas 9/07and Hannah 8-3-11

Yes they all have the same dad and no, the younger two were not "accidents."

My dd just turned 11 and started her period in March. So far she has not asked about tampons, but I always heard they were very hard to put in the first time because of the Hyman? I think that is what you call it LOL....I ended up using tampons after sex, so am unsure if that is true or not. I was always scared to because heard it hurt very bad. Heck could not of been as bad as the first time loosing your virginity though!! Now that HURT!! I'll have to check out that American girl book. Thanks:)

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Courtney 11, Brittany 8, Austin 4, Andrew 2

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. - Winston Churchill

Well thankfully everything went OK for her today!
I would have never even thought of having her use a tampon yet, but she started swimming today and I am not sure if they let you out of it because of AF. She was OK with trying to use one, so I let it be.
She basically used one twice yesterday and this morning she said she had it down on how to insert it. I never had these conversations with my mom, so I am flying blind with her LOL. Thanks for thinking I handled it OK!

I had a hard time when the topic came around since I was never "allowed" to use them as a teen. I went ahead and let her try different brands. We did start w/ ones that were "slim" and those worked well. Now she prefers the Pearl kind. She doesn't use them all the time, just when she's swimming etc.
My biggest fear was Toxic Shock. We went over that when she first started and there was even a show on Mystery diagnosis on TV at the exact time which she watched (and kind of freaked her some, but I thought she could see I wasn't just trying to scare her, it's a true disease.)
I'm going to let her explain it to her sister when the time comes ;) - since I still don't use them!